Guide to Smart Home Speakers

Smart speakers are extremely flexible. Many individuals solely use them to play music, which is an extremely limited purpose for this device. They can make calls, set alarms, handle all of your smart home devices, and even play games with you.

There are numerous fantastic options on the market, and it can be difficult to choose one based on its features. 

Modern Bluetooth speaker with active artificial intelligence assistant showing futuristic user interface with different icons

What are smart home speakers?

Smart speakers are voice-controlled assistants that provide hands-free control of a variety of household functions. Simply issue a command and observe the magic unfold.

Alexa, Siri, and the Google assistant are a few of the most widely used and beloved smart speakers. The weather forecast is an easy application of a smart speaker. Consider that you are about to leave for work and do not have time to check the weather forecast to see if you need to bring an umbrella. You can just ask Alexa to read you today’s forecast and make a snap decision.

Smart speakers are capable of so much more. People, however, are unaware of the intelligence and versatility of these machines. We will discuss all the advantages you may take use of if you own one of these enchanted gadgets.

Benefits of Smart Speakers

Voice assistants were formerly exclusive to cellphones, but now there are endless options for smart speakers. The major advantage of using a smart speaker is that you no longer need your phone nearby to use a voice assistant with a standard Bluetooth speaker. Additionally, these speakers can be used as a standard Bluetooth speaker. If you utilize a music streaming service, you don’t even need to use Bluetooth to connect your smart speaker to your phone.

The uniqueness of smart speakers is the ability to communicate with them through voice commands. It might be instructed to play music from your preferred music streaming service, to provide the latest weather and news updates, or to provide traffic information for your commute to work. This hardly scratches the surface of the potential of smart speakers

Consider a smart speaker as the focal point of your home’s digital ecosystem. The majority of models require a mobile app on a smartphone or tablet for simple setup. All options function in tandem with cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI), which regulates everything from music streaming to the speaker’s capacity to interface with other smart devices, such as internet-enabled light bulbs and refrigerators.

For many of these tasks, it is advisable to use one of the three most popular smart speaker platforms. Therefore, before choosing a smart speaker, you should determine whose digital pack you wish to join: Amazon, Apple, or Google.

Voice controlled smart speaker in an interior home environment

Smart Home Installations

To control a smart home without needing to whip out your phone, purchase at least one smart speaker for each major living room so that they are always audible. Identify the rooms where you expect to utilize smart speakers the most before making a purchase. If you have multiple such rooms per floor, you should also examine if the walls could impede sound, necessitating the installation of a speaker in each room.

You do not need a full-size smart speaker in every room if you only need it to listen to instructions or answer inquiries and you rarely use it to play music or podcasts. The smaller, more affordable models, such as the Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini, make it simple to distribute voice control throughout a large residence.

A single smart speaker can connect to any number of smart-home devices; but, if you have smart lighting, smart wall outlets, and other such devices throughout your home, you may need to set up many smart speakers so that they can hear your orders regardless of their location.

How do smart speakers work?

Voice recognition is the most fundamental feature of a smart speaker; however, the technology is significantly more complex. The speakers can listen to your question and answer appropriately.

Not all smart speakers use the same algorithm for voice detection in the background. They operate slightly differently from one another, but the essential premise is identical. Your smart speaker is listening for a command, and when you use a wake word, it is prepared to execute the command.

If you own various speakers, you do not need to learn whole different command sequences because the default word is very consistent. Once this technology is active, the speaker will record your instruction and search the internet for relevant results. That is how it seems from your perspective.

In the background, the speaker transmits the audio recording to a cloud-based voice service. Alexa is equipped with AVS or Alexa Voice Services. This speech service then decodes your query and transmits the response to the speaker. The speaker will read it aloud. The algorithm underlying the procedure differs from one manufacturer to the next, making each voice assistant distinct.

Specifically, they can be used as:

Mom and daughter talk to voice assistant with screen at home

1. Digital assistant

If you simply want to use a smart speaker for chores such as checking your schedule or creating to-do lists, you may only need one smart speaker in your primary office. Similarly, if your sole requirement in the kitchen is to read out recipes, record grocery lists, set timers, or receive additional assistance while preparing or dining, you could likely get by with a single speaker. In these circumstances, your smartphone, which likely includes Google Assistant or Siri, should be able to serve as a second, portable smart speaker for chores that follow you outside the home.

The majority of smart-speaker platforms allow you to add items to your grocery or to-do list, search the Internet for quick responses, check your calendar, and conduct simple activities such as setting timers and performing simple math calculations. By developing your own functions on services like IFTTT, you may accomplish much more. Each of these chores may appear to be inconsequential on their own, but the more you can automate, the more time and mental bandwidth you will gain. Many of these tasks can be completed using the voice assistant that is likely incorporated into your smartphone. However, smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home models are often easier to operate since they offer more natural-language cues, making it simpler to rely on them and develop more productive routines.

2. Listening to audiobooks, music, and more

If you wish to stream music or podcasts in multiple rooms of your home, you will require more than one speaker. You may, however, utilize a combination of smart speakers and standard speakers without voice-control features. The majority of individuals prefer to have a high-quality smart speaker in their primary listening space, such as the living room, kitchen, or music corner. However, you may save money by augmenting this system with smaller, more cost speakers, such as the Google Home Mini or the Echo Dot, so that you can still hear alarms and news broadcasts in other rooms.

3. Interaction and chat

If you wish to connect between rooms in your home or accept phone calls on a smart speaker, you should install a speaker in each room from where communication is possible. If only outgoing calls are desired, a single smart speaker should sufficient.

You can make phone calls and send text messages through your smart speaker, regardless of whether you have an Echo, a Google Home, or an Apple Home Pod; however, the routing of the call or message and the numbers you can contact may be restricted based on your location and phone carrier.

In conclusion

 Smart speakers have grown incredibly popular, and there are a range of smart speakers available on the market from numerous manufacturers.

These smart speakers enable us to manage wirelessly enabled lights, purchase various products and meals online, as well as provide information such as the weather forecast, time, and date, among many other things. Additionally, they may broadcast music directly to the speakers. In actuality, they are known as virtual assistants.